Nuclear Lightcurve Observations of Short Period Comets

Details Nuclear Lightcurve Observations of Short Period Comets Nuclear Lightcurve Observations of Short Period Comets

Feb 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002noao.prop..252m&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #2002A-0252

Physics

Scientific paper

We propose to continue to observe rotational lightcurves of the nuclei of several short period comets where the nuclear flux dominates over any coma contribution. Our immediate goal is to derive rotational periods for these comets. Lower limits for axial ratios and estimates for effective nuclear cross sections (for a known or assumed albedo) will also be calculated. During the 2002A semester our candidate comets are 28P/Neujmin 1, 145P/Shoemaker-Levy 5, 148P/Anderson-LINEAR, P/Catalina (1999 XN120), and P/Tichy (2000 U6). Understanding the rotational parameters of a significant sample of short period comets, when taken individually and/or collectively, will allow us to (1) facilitate accurate interpretation of many observations of comae and nuclei, enabling us to understand the character of nuclear activity; (2) provide estimates to the structural parameters of cometary nuclei thus constraining the formation mechanisms of comets in the solar nebula and the corresponding environment of the solar nebula itself; (3) serve as a necessary reservoir of inputs to studies on cometary spin-orbit coupling and non-gravitational forces which help us understand their physical and dynamical evolution; and (4) facilitate future studies of ensemble nuclear properties of comets and TNOs.

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